Australia's spearhead Mitchell Starc has joined offspinner Nathan Lyon in criticising the deep footholes on the crease at the SSC ground in Colombo, while also intimating that the touring pacemen have not been well served by the maintenance of that area all series.

Lyon had already flagged the deep excavation in the landing areas for the bowlers after day one, and on the second morning, Starc attracted the attention of the umpires for following through in the danger zone - at least in part because his preferred landing spot was far from solid.

"It's not great," Starc said. "Nathan mentioned a few things yesterday about how it is after a day-one wicket. The fact that they fill the holes with not much and it was still wet this morning, and has been after each innings that we've bowled through the series, and the fact they've probably bowled 15 overs of pace through the whole series, it is a bit easier for the spinners to land on than it is for our quicks.

"I understand the wicket is what it is and both teams play on that, but the actual bowling crease has been pretty disappointing this Test match."

A former groundsman at Adelaide Oval, Lyon had quipped that "I think I've just hit water - the hole's that deep". "It's ridiculous on a day-one wicket, if I am being brutally honest," he said. "It creates a lot of problems, not just for me - Josh Hazlewood lands in the middle of it, so, hopefully, the curators can somehow fix that."

Having grabbed his third five-wicket haul in as many innings, Starc is hopeful of an overdue quieter day ahead, after Steven Smith and Shaun Marsh set Australia's first decent batting platform of the series.

"Boys started the innings really well," Starc said. "We're one down, unfortunately, but the way Shaun and Steve played through that last session was great, what we've looked for the whole series. It's just a couple Test matches too late. But positive signs, obviously. We've got four Test matches in India early next year, so we're making good steps forward. It's just happened too late in this series."

Starc has reason to want the chance to rest in the team viewing area on day three, as his brother Brandon Starc will be competing for Australia in the Olympic high jump event in Rio around 5am Sri Lanka time on Monday.

"I'm glad we're batting so I'll be able to get up about 5am and watch the brother over in Rio do his thing in the high jump," Starc said. "Pretty excited and proud of the younger brother to represent his country at an Olympics. He sounds pretty excited as you would be in your first Olympic Games.

"He's worked his butt off to get there, so I'm very proud of him, and I'm sure he'll do himself and his country proud tomorrow."